Parcels of Spanish Memories – The Taucker Travel Blog

I like maps. I can pore over them endlessly. No subject how very well I feel I know a put, when I appear at a map I see considerably I was not knowledgeable of. At the exact same time, as the Polish-American thinker Alfred Korzybski pointed out, the map is not the territory. When you are basically in a put you practical experience a good deal that is not on any map.

I obtain that no spot is at any time very what I imagined it to be. It’s often a wonderful deal much more. When I went to Spain, I was struck by many matters that had hardly ever occurred to me. For case in point, I experienced constantly imagined of Spain as part of Europe, which it obviously is. But when I was touring throughout the countryside and checking out the towns, I retained noticing what felt like an affinity with Africa.

As soon as that had happened to me, I understood it should not have been a surprise. Spain and Africa are appropriate following to every other. At the Strait of Gibraltar, they are only separated by 8 miles of easily navigable drinking water. There you can see Morocco from Spain and vice versa. Just before railroads and cars ended up invented, the sea was by significantly the most effective implies of lengthy-length travel. So traditionally, Spain is in some approaches nearer to Africa than Europe.

In contrast, Spain is separated from France and the rest of Europe by the mighty Pyrenees mountain assortment, which varieties a formidable barrier. That strengthened Spain’s particular person character progress, and its independence from the rest of Europe. Spain has developed its own unique character, and through its colonial empire, it spread that tradition all around the planet. Like all colonial empires, Spain had its oppressive aspect. But total, its cultural legacy is irresistibly charming.

I also discovered a geological basis for the affinity between Spain and Africa. In phrases of continental drift, the movement of landmasses around the crust of the earth in excess of thousands and thousands of decades, Spain was previously portion of the African landmass. It collided with the Eurasian landmass thousands and thousands of decades in the past, and the stress developed the Pyrenees Mountains. So Spain has a deep affinity with Africa in the land itself.

But likely most of the affinity I felt between Spain and Africa was dependent on the presence of the Moors, out of Northern Africa, who occupied Spain for just about 800 a long time, 711 to 1492.

The Berber-Hispanic Muslims inhabited two-thirds of the Iberian Peninsula for 375 many years, occupied about 50 % for yet another 160 yrs, and stayed in Granada for another 244 years. Such cultural influences run deep and do not vanish quickly. The Moorish lifestyle remains a palpable section of the experience of contemporary Spain.

In the 20^th century, the Spain-Africa affinity was reflected in the art of Pablo Picasso, possibly Spain’s most celebrated artist. He began his career ably mastering the styles of his predecessors, from Rembrandt via Gauguin and Van Gogh. Then he learned African artwork, which led to a revolution in the way he noticed factors. He deconstructed the planet and put it back again jointly in a surprising new way. That was the delivery of Cubism. It wasn’t just a style that arrived and went, it eternally adjusted the way we see things and characterize issues in artwork.

As I toured Spain and expert the special character of each individual of the cities, I realized that each had made independently throughout the centuries prior to the establishment of a national entity identified as Spain.

It was in the watershed yr of 1492 that the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon conquered the Emirate of Granada, finished Muslim rule in the south, and started Spain as a united condition.

The existence of Rome is also distribute across the state, as in virtually all of Europe and North Africa. You run into enduring Roman artifacts approximately in all places, these as in Córdoba exactly where there even now stands a terrific Roman bridge and a giant waterwheel.

Touring cross region was thrilling because the landscape alone, with its awe-inspiring Sierra Nevada mountains and great expanses of rolling plains, has heart-stirring attractiveness. It looks to discuss quietly and grandly of its individual ancient historical past. But it is the towns where by folks get and tradition is concentrated in so quite a few artifacts, in which you can truly get a really feel for the human historical past of the location.

Every single of the towns I frequented remaining its individual parcel of private reminiscences: Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Córdoba, Granada and Malaga. Every single felt special and unique when I was there, and still left robust impressions that characterize my memories of them.

Barcelona is the glorious Mediterranean seaport in the northeastern portion of Spain, as breezy and wonderful as its name is musical, dancing off the tongue. Barcelona was the cash of Catalonia, and was 1 of the to start with Roman settlements in Spain, established by Emperor Augustus about 15 BC. You can still see Roman partitions and ruins there.

A single of my most vivid reminiscences of Barcelona is the amazing Gaudí Cathedral. It was inspired by medieval Gothic cathedrals crafted from the 12^th to the 15^th century. But it was created in the late 19th century. It is viewed as Catalan Modernisme, or Artwork Nouveau. It is strange and riveting to appear at, colossal and ornate in a weird way. It embodies the flair and flamboyance of Barcelona. I loved the city’s Art Nouveau architecture, and the ornate iron railings and stone work.

Barcelona also captured my heart mainly because it was the funds of Catalonia, the place the to start with resistance to fascism rose up in the late 1930s in what turned the Spanish Civil War.

Madrid is the good cosmopolitan center of Spain, suitable in the middle. With a population of virtually 3 million, it’s by far Spain’s largest metropolis. It’s the household of the terrific Museo Nacional del Prado, just one of the world’s biggest museums, as perfectly as the Reina Sofia museum, which houses Picasso’s “Guernica,” yet another statement on the Spanish Civil War. The streets of Madrid are enjoyable, with art pieces displayed outdoors, sidewalk cafes, and lively road daily life. And there’s the significant Palacio del Oriente, the Royal Palace now utilised for activities and as a tourist attraction.

Seville had what is mentioned to be the first tobacco manufacturing facility, from the 18^th century, which was the placing of the opera “Carmen” by the French composer Bizet. Seville is the funds of the region of Andalucía, with gorgeous rolling hills and villages, and homes on hillsides. It is the property of Flamenco music and dance, and a very good put to encounter the real point. It’s the closing resting put of Columbus and also the place of the amazing Alamillo Bridge, designed by Santiago Calatrava applying a harp-like framework. And it is exactly where tapas originated.

Córdoba was a Moorish city, and centre of the Arabic entire world. The Cathedral of Cordoba shows a fascinating conglomeration of Muslim and Christian cultures. It was as soon as a Mosque, and however displays indicators of its earlier incarnation, now overlaid by Christian symbols. Cordoba was also the birthplace of the terrific bullfighter El Cordobés.

Granada, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in southern Spain, was the headquarters of the Moors in Spain. It is acknowledged largely for the Alhambra, their palace. The Alhambra, or “Red Castle” in Arabic, is a head-numbingly stunning palace and grounds, complete of ornate, Moorish artwork and style and design, revealing a incredibly wealthy and formulated nation that existed there from the late 9^th century until finally the Moors had been chased out in 1492 by the growing new Spanish country.

Málaga is an Andalusian town on Costa del Sol. It was the birthplace of Picasso in 1881, and is the property of the Museo Picasso Málaga, a museum devoted to Picasso. Málaga was also the website of a intimate legend of Lovers Mountain, or Lovers Rock, claimed to be the position exactly where two enthusiasts, a Christian and a Moor, jumped to their deaths relatively than to be divided. Spain is very little if not passionate.

Spain is a location of great soul, fantastic non secular and sensual vibrance. It is an infinite resource of marvel and heat pleasure, in no way to be exhausted.

Viva Espana!

Your humble reporter,

Colin Treadwell